Tellings of a Vampire
by Captain Crash Helmet
Summary: Rita Skeeter has unearthed the one secret Snape wants everyone to know about the fact that he's a vampire. Skeeter interviews him on his adventures, immortality, and most importantly: What ever happened to the boy who ONCE lived? 2 part story only.


Desrosiers: I first got the idea for this story when the leader of a Harry Potter book club I attend brought to our attention that Snape could indeed be a vampire. And because I'm an Anne Rice freak, I just had to use the title of the first book in The Vampire Chronicles. Enjoy!

Oh, and just to make it clear: This is Part One of the story. Look for Part Two coming very soon.

Disclaimer: Characters property of J.K Rowling / Title is owned by Anne Rice. Yadda yadda yadda.

**Interview with the Vampire – Part One.**

The familiar shadow glided gracefully into the three broomsticks and took a seat next to a smart looking woman. It was a woman that had been seen before, a woman with a crocodile handbag resting weightlessly on her shoulder.

The Three Broomsticks was half-full with Hogwarts students, all eagerly awaiting their fresh, warm butterbeers. There was somewhat a hushed conversation going on among a few third years sitting in the corner of the worn down pub. Other than that, it was almost silent.

"Good day, Severus." The woman spoke. "Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet." She extended her bony hand tipped with bright green fingernails, to greet the shadowy figure.

"Pleasure." Snape spoke slowly and grimly, as he accepted Rita's hand and shook it delicately. "So you're here to hear about my story." His lips curled in an upward grin, baring his moonlight white teeth.

"Yes, yes I am." Rita reached into her horrid crocodile handbag and pulled out a exuberant green quill and some parchment. "On your ready, Sir."

Snape nodded slowly, as if every motion he made painfully stabbed at his soul. "Ah, where shall I start…"

"The boy." Rita smiled kindly, and folded her legs. "I want to hear about the boy."

"Ah yes, Mr. Potter." Snape seemed to lighten up in the smallest instance. "No one ever knows what happened to that boy…"

"But..surely, you must have some idea? Being his..teacher and all." Rita's brow furrowed.

"I thought you were here to listen to my story, not some pathetic musings on a boy who barely escaped death six times, and then…" Snape cut himself short, as if thinking of the right word. "And then, failed…the 7th time."

Rita seemed to get excited, and her Quick Quote quill was speeding across the piece of parchment ten to the dozen. "Yes, yes. Go on."

"Well, anyway...he's gone now. But I'm sitting 4 inches away from you." Snape smiled deviously.

"Yes, yes. You're right. Do continue." Rita sighed.

"Thank you." Severus nodded. "Back when I was at school, which was a good 18 years ago, I was in my last year I believe. James and Lily were strutting around like they owned the---"

Rita's bright green Quick Quotes Quill was fluttering across the page in utter excitement, making a disrupting scratching noise whenever it touched the parchment.

Snape gave a sly glare towards the quill, and proceeded talking.

"James and Lily were strutting around like they owned the school, making unruly comments to passing students of lower class, such as myself. I remember how inseparable they were; almost as inseparable as James and Sirius. Those two were never seen apart, even during Quidditch matches. I sat quiet and watched them both. James would play, Sirius would cheer. Pathetic." There was a honest-to-goodness icy tone in Snape's words.

"And…and you never played a part in this friendship?" Rita delicately pushed up her flame red Madonna glasses.

"Never. They…wouldn't accept me. They were too full of themselves to even care."

"I see." Rita's quill surely must have been smoking by now.

"But, anyway. I could have told, you know. I could have told of the midnight escapades they would go on, the raids in the kitchens, the bewitching of broom closets so that they would lock Mr. Filch inside. I could have revealed their every troublemaking secret to the councils that could deal with it, but I didn't.

Truth be told, I desperately wanted to be a part of this group of theirs; to share the joy of having someone to depend on. Instead, they cast me out. Teased me. Took advantage of me. 'Oh, have fun polishing our brooms, Snivelus!' they would say. 'Don't be late for class because you have no backbone and feel like rearranging your chemistry set!' I could have revealed everything about them. But still, I didn't. I wanted them to accept me; to respect me, to come to me with a problem and ask my advice, to wreak havoc with me. But it seemed like it was never going to happen. I wanted so much to be a part of a friendship that seemed endless, that I would do anything."

"Anything?" Rita smiled. "Do go on."

"Anything." Snape looked around. The Three Broomsticks seemed almost abandoned. The bartender had bewitched the tables to stack their own empty chairs, as it was getting late and anymore guests was less than likely. He was wiping down the bar with a scruffy white rag, and disposing of any empty butterbeer bottles. Snape turned back to face Rita.

"Anything." Snape seemed distant as he was reminiscing. "I sought out help."

Rita looked taken aback. "Help? What sort of help, Severus? May I call you Severus? Mr. Snape, maybe?"

Snape shot Rita a shifty look, and she immediately regained her posture.

"Help. You know, the type of council you seek when in trouble of some sort. I sought it out in the most unusual places. I wanted my respect from James and Sirius, you see; amongst the respect of a few other people. Anyway, I was offered help by a dark, cloaky sort of man. Very pale."

Rita looked Snape over. Dark, cloaky, pale. She gave him a skeptical look.

"I didn't always look like this!" He barked.

Rita quickly put her hands up in defense. "Of course not. Continue."

"This man, claiming to be a man named Lazarus, offered me a deal. He could…make me immortal; make people respect me, fear me." Snape paused, a slight glint in his eye. "And he kept his promise. But I had to do one thing."

Rita nodded, eager for him to proceed into his tale.

"He wanted me to fetch him someone. A man named William Vancouver, an old janitor for the school. I obliged, without a second thought; not a second thought of getting caught, not a second thought of the story spreading rapidly throughout the Daily Prophet. I wanted my reward." His lips curled in a sort of menacing grin. "Apparently he had old business with this man, and wanted to 'settle his dues' so to speak. I lured this William to him by telling him there was a broom race across the lake at midnight. That chap would fall for anything. And so Lazarus had his way with him. But he didn't turn him into a vampire, no; he just killed him for the sake of killing him. I stood, mesmerized, watching Lazarus draining the life out of this man; the man growing pale, clutching his throat, and falling to the floor. It replayed in my mind for days. Then--" Snape grinned, "—came my reward. And a very good reward it was. I wasn't worried about a murder story getting all over town. I just wanted what I had earned and longed for since the day I set foot in Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

The whole time Rita sat silent, except for her quill scurrying across the page every few moments. She was clearly enchanted with Severus' tale. It was the first story that had actually shut her up for once; but it was far from over.


End file.
